


Be With Me

by qorquiq



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:08:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22214578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qorquiq/pseuds/qorquiq
Summary: Life continues on in the galaxy after the defeat of the Emperor's Final Order. Rey, drawn to Tattooine by the Force, begins to put a life together. Together with her master she searches for a spirit lost in the world between worlds. Secrets lie buried beneath the sand.Post-TROS fix-it fic. Retcons the final line of TROS.-“It’s still hard to think that the man who gave the order to destroy my homeworld was my father.” Leia said. “I’ve spoken to him. But this man, this Anakin Skywalker- he means nothing to me. He’s a dead old man. Bail Organa is my father.”The light of the twin suns began to intensify as they rose. Golden light shone through on the stone wall behind Leia. “If only Ben had idolized him.” Leia said. “Think of how different things would be.”
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	1. Homestead

‘Just Rey’ was enough for the older woman who came by the ruins of the Lars homestead late in the afternoon of Rey’s first day on Tatooine. Her name was Rutab and once she was convinced Rey wasn’t going to cause trouble, she was quick to lay out a woven blanket from her pack for the two of them to sit on and talk for awhile.  
“I figure I’m your closest neighbor by three clicks.” She said as she ladled out portions of green cactus flesh into two beaten brass bowls. “There used to be a commune out by the cliffs but it’s been shut down for almost a decade now.”  
“Who was it that lived there?” Rey asked. Rutab set one of the bowls out in front of her and she bowed her head in thanks before raising the bowl with both hands, drinking deeply. The older woman gave her answer between sips from her own bowl.  
“Some monks of some kind. Or- some folks who thought they were monks.” She said, “You get those sorts coming out here every few years or so. Spiritual types.” She slurped the cactus juice loudly, sucking it through her front teeth. “They’re a bother, they come out to the desert thinking they have it all figured out since they watched a few vids while they were in hyperspace. They don’t account for dust storms, having to check your moisture collectors, farming-” She paused. Rey was listening intently, a faint smile on her face.  
“What is it?” Rutab said. “Something in my teeth?”  
“No, no.” Rey replied. “Just listening.”  
“Hmph.” Rutab gave a nod of approval, “That’s good. Young people don’t know how to listen anymore. My granddaughter goes out to the farm every morning with these big metal things clamped over her ears. Doesn’t listen to the wind, doesn’t mind the sand. Nearly got her leg chewed off when she stepped into a nest of rock skinks- you know how stupid you have to be to set off a rock skink?” She shook her head. Rey sipped from her bowl.  
“It’s going to be a lot of work to get this place up and running again.” Rutab said, once the fire had started to grow low. “If I’m honest, I fixed up a few moisture collectors on some land near here that may have crossed the border of this homestead. Suppose you’d have the right to them.”  
Rey was struck by the woman’s honesty. All Artoo had given her was the location of the Lars homestead. She had no idea what the borders of their claim was, or even that they’d still have any after all these years.  
“I don’t know how to use a moisture collector.” Rey said, “At least not the farming kind. I’ve only ever scrapped them.”  
Rutab looked at her curiously, “A scrapper, eh? You come out of Mos Ackla? Ein Tarpal?”  
“Jakku.” Rey replied, “Off planet. It’s a desert like here.”  
Rutab tapped her calloused fingers against her bowl. “Big battle at the end of the war? The big fuck off ship graveyard?”  
Rey nodded. “You’ve heard of it?”  
“I have.” Rutab set her bowl down. “After the Battle of Yavin, the Empire was on the run and tried to set up an outpost here with a provisional governor. Didn’t last long, but it’s how I met my wife Dana. She was the governor’s daughter, but didn’t agree with the Empire trying to treat a bunch of sand and moisture farmers like some mid-rim prison planet. When the Empire ran off, she stayed on the dirt ball with me, for some reason.” The older woman smiled wistfully, watching the remaining few flames as they crackled. “I miss her.”  
Rey lowered her head respectfully, “I’m sorry for your loss.”  
Rutab let out a barking laugh, “Loss? No, no. No loss, she’s fine, she’s just halfway across the North Sea trading with the Jawas, she’ll be back before the wet season.”  
“There’s a wet season here?” Rey asked.  
Tatooine did have a wet season, it turned out, or at least marginally less dry season. Rutab told Rey all about it, how a moisture farm needed to have perfectly tuned sensitivity in order to take advantage of it without wearing out the collectors too bad. She also told Rey what a rock skink was (a skittish lizard the length of her arm) and how best to cook them (slow roasted on a spit with a salt rub). She pointed out to Rey on the map where the old commune was (out near the cliffs, and with a scrappers eye maybe she could find something interesting, and about a cave where it was rumored a dragon lived (“that’s why you don’t go poking around caves around here”)  
Rutab collected her bowls and her blanket once the fire had died down completely. She cast a look around the sand-drowned homestead, then looked to Rey from atop her mount.  
“You have the credits for a room at the spaceport?” The older woman asked.  
“I’ll be alright.” Rey promised, “Thank you for all your help.”  
Rutab nodded, then tugged her hood over her head,  
“I’ll be around in a few days.” She said, nudging her mount forward, “Might have some extra water or cactus juice we couldn’t sell.”  
Rey watched as the long-legged creature slowly carried the woman away. She ambled over the crest of a sand dune and then went out of sight. Rey turned back toward the homestead. She found BB-8 trapped under an overturned basket, then took it to the antennae she had jury rigged beside the outer wall. Rey unwound a thick black cord with a bright orange clip at the end, then opened a panel on BB-8’s side and plugged it in, securing it tightly.  
“Ready, BB?” She said, turning a dial on the antennae. The little droid whistled an affirmative cheery note, paused, then let out two more beeps, inquisitive.  
“I’ll be alright.” Rey said, laying her palm on top of the droid’s dome. “I’m just going to be clearing sand out of things while you’re gone. And you know Poe can’t tell the front of the Falcon from the back without you.”  
BB-8 let out a happy tweedle.  
“Yes, you can tell him I said that.” Rey smiled and flipped a switch beside the dial. A ring of orange lights flashed around BB-8’s lens and then went dark.  
Rey raised her head up to the sky, as if she could have followed the light of BB-8’s data matrix being patched over to the Resistance. Instead, she saw a sea of stars, and a few scattered streaks of light as ships entered and left Tatooine's orbit.  
All was quiet except for the wind moving over the dunes. Rey padded to the center of the homestead that had been filled with several meters of sand. She set her staff and her lightsaber aside, then sat with her legs crossed. With her hands on her knees, she closed her eyes and opened herself to the Force, as easily and naturally as drawing breath.  
In the deep silence of the sand dunes and beneath the dome of stars above her head, Rey slowed her breath and allowed the Force to flow through her, sustaining her in her meditation. As she continued, she gradually began to lift from the sand, until she hovered over it, suspended by the Force.  
She reached out, an invisible hand extending in all directions.  
“Be with me.” She murmured, “Be here, with me.” She repeated the words with her slow breaths. Her intention was simple, to discover hidden things, to understand the depths and the reach of her connection to the Force.  
In her mind’s eye, she had no body, she was only a consciousness moving easily in the infinite space of the universe. Around her, then sand that had filled the homestead began to shift, slowly flowing up and out of the courtyard and the buildings.  
She reached out further. Mos Eisley, where a pair of twi’lek brothers were watching their master watch a communication from the Resistance, announcing their plan for a galactic emancipation of slaves. It was Rose Tico’s voice. Rey smiled and her consciousness moved on.  
Her mind moved over the sand dunes. There were herds of dewbacks arranging themselves in a cluster to sleep so that the scant morning dew would collect before the rising of Tattoine’s first sun. They were feral, abandoned when the empire left the planet. They had many clutches of eggs, they were happy.  
Gradually the Force began to reveal to Rey the nature of the sand dunes. They were not immovable like stone mountains, over hundreds and thousands of years they shifted like the waves of a great ocean. Much was hidden. Wreckages of ancient space ships that were unlike any models Rey had seen before. The skeleton of an enormous beast with a thick shell that was as hard as forged steel but that glittered like a pearl. A strange map in a sand-filled cave once part of a whole but now intentionally broken, lost to miles and miles of sand.  
She couldn’t search the entire planet in a single night. Perhaps not in a single lifetime, or a thousand lifetimes.  
She felt the warmth of the twin suns light shining on her face as she slowly lowered herself to the ground. When she opened her eyes, she saw the Lars homestead, fully cleared of the sand but even in the soft pinkish light of the sunrise she could see just how damaged everything had been by its tomb of sand.  
“I never took you for a moisture farmer.”  
Rey turned her head and saw an odd sight. There was a blue figure standing on one side of the courtyard, the figure was standing on a rough spun cloth, and on the cloth there were two lightsabers, neatly laying beside each other.  
“Master Organa.” Rey rose to her feet. “It’s good to see you, but why-“  
“I thought I might do the mysterious Jedi thing and leave these here for you without an explanation.” Leia replied, then one corner of her mouth twisted up into a familiar and very welcome wry smile. “But then I decided I wanted to know, what possessed you to come here, of all places? And why bury my lightsaber under a mile of sand?”  
Rey suddenly understood that her understanding of what she was meant to do may have been completely wrong.  
“Master Skywalker’s droid gave me the location of this place.” She said, looking around the courtyard. “I built my own lightsaber on the way, during my meditation.”  
“Good job, but why bury them here?” Her eyebrows rose.  
Rey did not like that look, it was the look the general always had on her face when certain cocky unnamed pilots were about to talk themselves into a trap.  
“Well, you came from here-“  
“Luke came from here. I wasn’t even born here.”  
“And it was where he first heard about the Force-“  
“He hated it here, actually. First chance he got he ran off with a desert hermit and the least reputable smuggler on the most unreliable piece of junk in the galaxy.”  
“He said this was where he truly felt he became a Jedi-“  
“My most vivid memory of this place is choking a slug to death using the chain he put on me.”  
“I couldn’t bear to keep them!” Rey exclaimed. Leia went quiet. Rey’s face felt hot, and her vision blurred.  
“In the fight- the last one. We used them then. It feels wrong to hold one when he can’t hold the other.”  
“Ah, Rey.” Leia stepped forward and Rey could see the pain or her loss etched into her face.  
“I’m sorry.” Rey murmured, and wiped at her cheek with the back of her hand. “When I first saw you I thought you might have come because you found him.”  
“No, no, it’s alright.” Leia’s brow furrowed. “It’s difficult. When I’m not here my awareness is different. I am one with the Force, and in time my consciousness will join with it for good.”  
“Like the Jedi who came before.”  
“If I thought that meant you would be alone I would fight it harder but I know you won’t be.”  
Rey nodded, “Finn asked me to train him.” She said, “And there are others who have awakened in the Force across the galaxy. I won’t be alone but-“ She let her shoulder slack. “-I would be more at peace if I knew Ben was with you.”  
“You saw him disappear, and all the old Jedi tales say that’s what happens when a Jedi joins the force and yet- no. He isn’t with us, he’s somewhere else. Something else.”  
Rey stooped down to pick up the two lightsabers. She put Leia’s saber on her belt, then held up Luke’s, turning it over in her hand.  
“This is where your father came from.” Rey said, “I thought that might mean something, that I would find some answers here.”  
Leia made a face.  
“What is it?” Rey said, lowering Luke’s lightsaber.  
“It’s still hard to think that the man who gave the order to destroy my homeworld was my father.” Leia said. “I’ve spoken to him. But this man, this Anakin Skywalker- he means nothing to me. He’s a dead old man. Bail Organa is my father.”  
The light of the twin suns began to intensify as they rose. Golden light shone through on the stone wall behind Leia. “If only Ben had idolized him.” Leia said. “Think of how different things would be.”  
“He’s out there, somewhere.” Rey said, setting her mouth in a determined line. “The Force guided me here for a reason. There must be something.”  
“I hope you’re right.” Leia said, and her voice was there and not there as her pale blue light form gave way to the intense light of high noon on Tatooine.

-*-

The next time Rutab came to visit was a few days later, and her offer of a bit of extra water or cactus juice was dwarfed by what she actually brought. She arrived one afternoon with a second figure on a second mount, along with a hovering skiff between them, laden with a barrel of water, several baskets of bread and dried meat, and a dozen cactus cuttings in little orange clay pots.  
“Are you bringing this all to market?” Rey asked, looking over the skiff as Rutab and the other figure dismounted. The second figure took her scarf from around her face and a pair of goggles, revealing pale blue eyes the same color as Rutab’s.  
“This is my granddaughter, Maya.” Rutab said, gesturing to her. “My oldest.” Maya was taller than her grandmother with broad, tanned shoulders. Her jet black hair was long and coiled into thick braids arranged neatly in a coif on top of her head. She was younger than Rey by a few years, still a teenager. She let her grandmother do the talking. “And we’ve already been to market.” Rutab added, nodding to the skiff. “That’s all for you.”  
Rey was struck speechless for a moment, then began to protest as Rutab went to take a bundle off of her saddle.  
“This is incredibly generous.” Rey said, “But it’s too much. I’m fine, really, I’m very grateful, but I don’t want you to put yourselves out to help me.”  
“If you’re really grateful you’ll take what’s offered.” Rutab replied gruffly. “Rude not to. Besides, it’s not all charity, with those cuttings you’ll be able to grow more than enough cactus for yourself, and I’ll be able to send some of our herd onto your land to graze, give our dunes a rest.” She turned back toward Rey, carrying a thick woven blanket with a geometric pattern in reds and oranges. “And take this.” She said, “It was just gathering dust, it’ll be useful with you instead.”  
Rey’s hands closed around the blanket and she felt a surge of emotion, not just in wonderment and surprise at the kindness, but from the warmth she could feel woven into the blanket itself. It was so filled with love and care that it radiates into the fabric of the Force around it. She couldn’t refuse.  
“Thank you.” Rey said, holding the blanket to her chest. “I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”  
“Well, you’ll let us graze on those cactuses you’re going to grow.” Rutab said, gesturing for Maya to start unloading the skiff, “And you’ll come to dinner tonight, meet the rest of the family.”  
Rey nodded, “I’d be honored.”

Maya galloped ahead on her mount while Rutab kept hers at a leisurely pace to walk alongside the skiff Rey rode with some scrap from the homestead she’d insisted Rutab take, as a gift. Rey learned that they called the long-legged mounts striders, Rutab pointed out the moisture collectors where she was technically poaching water on Rey’s land, and pointed out the different clusters of buildings on her own homestead.  
The main center of Rutab’s farm was larger than the Lars homestead, and Rey could see why. In addition to moisture and cactus farming, Rutab’s family kept a large collection of herds of various creatures, from a small group of the striders to a large herd of wooly banthas that smelled absolutely terrible.  
“Those, we generally just try to make sure they don’t wander off to get pulled into the raider herds.” Rutab said as she took the saddle off of her strider.  
Rey reached up to give the strider’s neck a pat. “Do you see many of them out here?” She asked  
“If I have to see them at all, it's a bad day,” Rutab said, “No matter the distance, I don’t even like to see them as little specks on the horizon. You can never tell how many of them there are, and they’re always plotting.”  
Dinner was ready and laid out on a large oval shaped table. There was enough food for Rutab’s family as well as a few field hands. The field hands wouldn’t have looked out of place in a cantina, but it was clear they were well-respected and had an easy time working with Rutab.  
Rutab’s family was the most enormous one Rey had ever encountered. There was Rutab, whose wife Dana was still off trading with the Jawas, their daughter Kiva, her husband Gad, and then Rutab’s youngest son, Jaal. Rutab has a middle daughter, Layla, who worked at the spaceport and wasn’t always on the farm. Jaal had no children and Kiva had four. Maya, her oldest, her son Asher who was just as tall as Maya but far more willowy, not quite grown into his body, he daughter Ava, and an infant son who she and her husband took turns carrying in a swaddle sling across their chests.  
After Rutab introduced the family and they began to eat, Rey noticed that as the family spoke, they also made gestures with their hands that kept up with the pace of their speaking, and sometimes went even faster.  
Ava, a young girl with a precocious smile and a large space in her teeth where she had recently lost a tooth, explained.  
“Mom used to work on big starships.” She said, “But when she did they didn’t have any rules about how far you had to stay from the main engines or how long or how loud they could be. So she doesn’t hear so well now.”  
“So you speak with your hands?” Rey asked.  
Ava nodded. “Yeah. Dad figured it out from a trader who came through and had all these vids about it. It helps mom a lot so we all learned.”  
“It helps when you’re out on the farm, too.” Asher chimed in, “If you’re too far away from somebody or if the wind is blowing hard and you don’t want to take off your mask, you can still talk.”  
“Interesting.” Rey paid attention to the conversation and the hand movements, and gradually realized that in addition to the spoken conversation, there were no fewer than two conversations additional happening purely with hand gestures.  
After a few minutes of watching and listening, Rey looked back to Ava, keeping her voice low,  
“I don’t mean to pry, but are your grandmother and your sister arguing? You don’t have to tell me about what, I’m just trying to understand.”  
Ava nodded so hard that her twin puffy pigtails bobbed on the top of her head,  
“Uhhuh. They argue all the time.” She said with a toothy grin.  
“We’re not arguing.” Maya interjected, keeping her eyes on Rutab. “We just don’t agree on something.”  
“Isn’t that the same thing as arguing?” Ava said, and Rey couldn’t help a smile.  
Kiva gave her mother and daughter a long suffering look and signed something, miming a four-legged animal on her palm, followed by an exaggerated shrug.  
“Mom says it’s silly to argue so much about grazing banthas.” Ava said.  
“It’s not just about grazing.” Rutab said, “it’s about grazing somewhere dangerous just because you’re curious about some rocks.”  
“They’re not just rocks,''Maya insisted. “It’s a whole canyon that we never go to! It’s on our land, shouldn’t we know what’s there?”  
“We know what’s there.” Rutab replied, exasperated. “Sand that’s unstable because it’s on top of a bunch of caverns. That canyon is full of sinkholes.”  
“If it’s so unsafe, why did the tuskens have a settlement there?” Maya said.  
“There’s no settlement there.” Rutab frowned.  
“They used to have one. They didn’t leave because the canyon wasn’t safe.” Maya said.  
“Then why did they leave?” Rey asked. Both Maya and Rutab turned their heads to look at her. Then Rutab looked at Maya.  
“It’s just an old story.” Maya said. “There was a settlement there, but not just a settlement like the camps you see sometimes, this was a proper village. The tuskens had lived there for generations. Then one day a raiding party went out, and when the raiders came back they discovered that-“ Maya glanced briefly to Ava, then looked to Rutab again “-that all of their people had been killed by a monster.”  
“All of them?” Asher said. Ava’s eyes were wide as dinner plates.  
“Maya, that’s enough of that.” Rutab said, shaking her head, “I wish you would spend more time on your studies or working the farm rather than making up stories. Our guest is going to think you just have sand between your ears.”  
“I didn’t make it up!” Maya exclaimed, rising to her feet.  
“Then where did you hear it from?” Rutab said.  
Maya’s face turned bright red, “Not from a bunch of smelly banthas!” She shouted, and turned to storm out of the dining room.  
All was silent for a moment. Rey’s entire body was on edge.  
Then, one of the fieldhands let out a belch. Someone laughed. Another hand gesture conversation started up, and soon the family dinner was back to its original liveliness and volume. Maya’s absence seemed incredibly awkward to Rey, but after some time she came to realize that this was not the first time Maya had stormed out from an argument with her grandmother.  
“It won’t be the last, either.” Rutab said at the end of the night. She was bundling up some of the food left over from dinner. “Here,” she said, holding it out to Rey.  
“Oh, I couldn't-“  
“You going to argue with me now, too?” Rutab said. Rey shook her head sheepishly and took the bundle.  
Rutab sighed, walking with Rey out of the courtyard. “Dana says the reason we argue so much is that she’s just like I was at her age. A little spitfire.” She shook her head. “Don’t worry about all that. I’ll talk to her in the morning. I’m glad you were able to come!”  
“Thank you for inviting me.” Rey said.  
“Anytime, my friend. You’ll come again.”


	2. The Tomb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life continues on in the galaxy after the defeat of the Emperor's Final Order. Rey discovers an ancient tomb buried beneath the sand dunes of Tatooine.
> 
> Post-TROS fix-it fic.
> 
> -
> 
> The form of a hand rose out of the dim purple light, then another. As they approached her hands at the surface of the slab, the form blocked the light and cast the strange hands in shadow, as if concealed by black gloves.  
> Rey inhaled sharply at the sight. She felt pain in her temples from how hard she grit her teeth, pushing down into the slab again.  
> “It’s alright.” She murmured, then repeated it louder, trying to drown out the rush of the Force around her, “Don’t be afraid.”

Rey cobbled together something like a routine, nestled between sand dunes. She split her time between getting the old homestead back in order and surveying the land around it. There was plenty of broken equipment inside for Rey to tinker with before the sun went down. Every few nights Rutab would come by to invite her for dinner and to poke and prod her for information about how she was faring with the homestead.  
She spent plenty of nights with Rutab’s family, picking up their sign language and listening to their stories. The older woman’s gifts of food and other trinkets were frequent. Eventually Rey gave up trying to refuse when she discovered a whole parcel of food tucked away in her satchel after returning home.  
The gifts proved useful in Rey’s efforts to map out the surrounding area with the Force. One of her furthest trips on foot was out to the canyon, a strip of jagged purplish mountains poking out of the sand. She found evidence of the settlement Rutab had mentioned, a row of sandstone dwellings nestled at the foot of one of the rock spears. Rey chewed on a piece of dried salted lizard skin as she walked between buildings. She reached out a hand, running her fingertips over the pale yellow stone.  
Rey felt the fingerprints of their earnest search in unseen swirls that covered their abandoned homes. The interiors of the buildings were bare except for some shelves and small cisterns made from the same stone. Things they couldn’t take with them easily.  
Rey reached the opposite side of the settlement and turned back the way she’d came. Her footprints were already starting to be consumed by the shifting sands.  
She found a wall of one of the dwellings where someone had taken care to carve a phrase into the stone with a steady hand,  
“THIS FAILURE HAS MANY FATHERS”  
Her body went cold, it wasn’t just the wind. They’d known that they needed to leave. It wasn’t a catastrophe that drove them out, but instead the long tail of some inevitable failing that they knew the face of well in advance.  
Rey adjusted her staff slung across her back and walked the length of the rock wall separating the settlement from the canyon. After some hunting, she found a narrow opening in the deep colored rocks that she could wedge herself through to get past the ridge. She could see that there was a wider space on the opposite side, or else she wouldn’t have risked pressing herself through the small space, keeping her breath steady.  
Pebbles fell loosened from the rock wall when she slid out of the opening. The sound of them sliding and landing on the sand was all that breached the silence of the interior of the canyon. It took her a moment to realize she hadn’t let out her last breath.  
The inside of the canyon was shrouded in slashes of deep black shadow, it took Rey’s eyes a moment to adjust. There was a single crescent of moonlight at the peak of a huge sand drift that she had to scramble up on her hands and knees to reach.  
Rey settled on the dune, kneeling instead of her usual cross-legged stance. She pressed her palm to the sand, sending her consciousness through the space around her. The Force was concentrated in this place, like rushing water moving over rapids. It wasn’t overwhelming, just brightly colored.  
And yet, she couldn’t make out the shape of it. The paths in this place were confused, aimless. The settlers had come here, she was sure of that, and they had been looking for something, she knew that, too. But what was it?  
The color swirled in the space beneath her. Completely uncovered, the canyon would have been unfathomably deep, a trench cut into the side of the planet. Rey tried to reach her awareness to the bottom, but found that she couldn’t. Her attention was diverted, distracted by a network of tunnels threading through the mountains that formed the canyon.  
The first of Tatooine's suns was starting to peek into the canyon when Rey returned fully to the physical world. Her face was slick with a cold sweat.  
“There’s something there.” She told Rutab later through a mouthful of some kind of dense seed bread, signing with one hand as she dabbed her bread on her plate to pick up more of the seeds that had flaked off of the crust. “But I don’t know-” She frowned at the shape she was making with her hand, adjusted it, and then continued, “-I couldn’t find anything, the deeper I looked the more confusing it was.”  
Rutab’s pale grey eyebrows knit together thoughtfully, but she didn’t say anything, so Rey took another bite.  
“What do you think?” She asked, and Rutab shook her head.  
“I think you have the worst table manners of anyone I’ve ever met.” The older woman said.  
“I’m not used to eating at tables.”  
“Right. You said.” Rutab turned, reaching out to a shelf behind her. She plucked a painted gourd wrapped in twine from the shelf, lifted off the top, and used a pitcher on the table to fill it with water. She fixed the lid back on top and then held it out to Rey. “There. If you aren’t going to stop wandering around on the dunes on your own, you ought to have something reliable to carry water in.”  
Rey held out both hands and took the gourd, running her thumbs over the painted surface as she and Rutab continued talking through the evening.  
Rey returned to the homestead late that night, and went to where she’d created a kind of nest for herself out of blankets in one corner of the main room of one of the buildings. She watched as the signal tower connected to BB-8 illuminated in green, and after a minute, the little droid sprang to life, beeping and whirring. It let out a happy trill, spun in a circle, then made a beeline for her, stopping only when the cable connecting it to the tower ran out of slack.  
“There you are!” Rey sprung up to her feet, and strode to kneel down beside the droid, running her hand over its side. When she reached to unclamp the latch connecting it, it let out another whirring chirp, then a light under its main lens turned blue, emitting a cone of blue light.  
Rey sat down beside BB-8, watching as the blue light condensed into the figure of a man dressed in the uniform of a New Republic senator’s aid.  
“Finn!” Rey exclaimed, leaning forward. “Is this live?”  
It took a few seconds and the image lagged behind the sound, which crackled slightly.  
“Yes!” Finn’s familiar smile filled the hologram. Rey wrapped her arms around her knees and leaned forward. “How are you doing?” He said. “It’s been so long since anyone heard from you.”  
“I’ve been alright. I found the settlement that Master Skywalker’s droid told me about. Some of the locals have been helping me.” Rey described Rutab and her family, the things she had learned about moisture farming in the desert, the different lizards she occasionally found sunning themselves inside the homestead when she rose in the morning. She told Finn about her meditations in the desert, trying to explore the dunes, the caves beneath the sand, the commune and the canyon. She didn’t tell Finn about Master Organa, or the loneliness of the evenings she didn’t spend with Rutab’s family, or the pain she felt whenever she remembered what she had lost on Exegol.  
No one knew how deep the wound from that final battle had been for her. If anyone could have understood, it was Finn. But she hadn’t told him yet. He must have felt that rift. Once she had told him about her exploration of Tatooine, and after he had told her all about the Republic’s efforts to pull a galactic government together, he broached a new subject,  
“You know- there’s a place for you, here.”  
“I know.” Rey replied. “I’m just not ready yet.”  
“Maybe I could go there.” He said gently. “Help you find whatever you’re looking for. You could help me start to understand how to be a Jedi?”  
“I don’t know if I’m a Jedi, Finn.” Rey said. “I don’t really know what it means to me anymore. I think that’s what I’m trying to figure out.”  
“But-”  
“The Republic needs you where you are. You know what it was like for the Stormtrooper conscripts. They need that perspective.” Rey rested her chin on her arms, “More than they need the Jedi order.”  
“Maybe.” He nodded. “But what about you?”  
“I’ll be alright.” She said. “It’s good just to talk.”  
“I should be able to the next time we’re between hyperspace loops.” Finn promised. “The more we do to reconnect the Republic worlds, the easier it’ll be for me to contact you.”  
“I look forward to it.”  
“But you definitely will have to come for the wedding.”  
Rey squinted at the holographic image, confused. “-wedding?”  
“Rose said that Poe said he’s going to propose any day now.” Finn said with a grin. “There’s a pool of whether he’ll do it before Life Day.”  
“I’ve never celebrated Life Day.” Rey said.  
“Me neither.”  
Far off, a klaxon sounded, and Finn disappeared from the hologram for a moment before returning, pulling a cap on top of his head with a silver New Republic seal above the brim.  
“Look at you.” Rey said admiringly.  
“Don’t start.” Finn said, tucking one of his locks under the side of the cap. “We’re about to leave hyperspace so I’m going to lose signal. But I can’t wait to see you again, and I hope you find what you’re looking for.”  
“Thanks, Finn.” Rey said.  
“May the Force be with you.” He said.  
Rey hesitated, and then, “May the Force-” Finn’s image crackled and disappeared.  
Rey stared at the sand where his image had been, then reached out a hand, lightly patting the top of BB-8’s dome. “-be with you.”

Finn and the New Republic were still on Rey’s mind when she loaded up her skiff with scrap from the homestead to bring it to Rutab’s a few nights later. It was hard for her to picture herself in a live outside war time that wasn’t what she was doing now - scrapping just came naturally to her. She also hadn’t been to a wedding before. It was difficult to imagine.  
As she came closer to Rutab’s home she saw signs of more activity than usual on the farm at this time of night. Two field hands went racing by on their striders, they didn’t slow down to greet her as they usually did. There was a low rumble of thunder on the horizon, but sand storms were common on Tatooine, it was nothing to worry about yet. Rutab had taught Rey the signs of real danger.  
Rey pulled the skiff up to the front of the house and dismounted. She came across Kiva, Rutab’s older daughter.  
‘What’s happening?’ Rey signed, looking around. She watched Kiva, and the older woman signed the gesture that Rey knew meant Maya, Rutab’s oldest granddaughter, and Kiva’s daughter. Then ‘missing.’  
‘Maya’s missing?’ Rey echoed.  
‘We haven’t seen her since early morning.’ Kiva replied, then she gestured for Rey to come inside the home.  
Gad was inside, Kiva’s husband and Maya’s father. Rey could see the strain in his face and shoulders.  
“Hello, Rey. Is there any news?” He asked, signing to Kiva more quickly than Rey could follow.  
“I don’t know.” Rey said. “I just got here.”  
“I need to go out again, do another search in the south sea.” Gad brushed past Rey and pressed a kiss to Kiva’s cheek. “I’m sorry, Rey, I can’t talk.”  
“I understand.” Rey said, and watched as Gad pulled a scarf around his face, then sprinted out back to the strider pens. As soon as he had gone, Rutab appeared in the doorway. Her face was drawn and pale. When she removed her goggles, her eyes were tired.  
“Ah, Rey-” She said, “I’m glad to see you.” She started to sign to Kiva rapidly. Rey caught the word for Maya again, and sand, and sorry. Kiva went to sit down at the family table, a heavy weight showing on her shoulders.  
Rutab went to pour herself a cup of cactus juice. Rey watched her in silence for a moment, then took a seat at the table by Kiva.  
‘I’m so sorry.’ She signed to the older woman, who just nodded.  
Rutab sat down heavily at the table across from both of them.  
“This is a disaster.” She said, resting her arms heavily on the table, continuing to sign with one hand as she spoke. She looked at Kiva, “I’m sorry, my girl. It was just another stupid argument, and she ran off.” She glanced to Rey, “She went off for her morning chores, but she never came back for mid-day meal, and we checked the moisture collectors and she never calibrated them today.”  
“I can head back to my homestead and check there.” Rey said, “Or anywhere you need another set of eyes.”  
Rutab nodded miserably. “Thank you.”  
Rey heard another rumble of thunder, and it sounded incredibly close, almost overhead. The room filled with a bright white flash of light, and Rey reflexively covered her eyes. Outside, the banthas began to bleat and roar, and the striders beat their feet against the ground.  
“The hell was that?” Rutab bellowed, and Kiva just shook her head. Both Rey and Rutab rose to their feet and raced out the door while Kiva went to check on the baby.  
Outside, the farm hands that were still there were working to try and calm the animals down. Rutab turned, scanning the horizon. Rey looked, as well, quickly opening herself to the Force.  
They both narrowed in on the same spot at the same time. Rutab followed the sight of a brief red glow on the horizon, Rey felt the Force flowing like a river into a pit.  
“The canyon.” Rey said, and Rutab looked at her, fear on her face.  
“It can’t be-” The older woman said. Then another sound rang out over the sand from the same direction, a single cry of a tusken raider, echoing across the dunes.  
“Maya said there used to be a raider settlement in the canyon-” Rey said. All of the color drained out of Rutab’s face.  
“Come on!” Rutab cried out, and sprinted for the other side of her homestead. Rey followed after, then watched Rutab pull open a rusted metal door, revealing a deep red speeder. Rutab flipped three switches on the side of the speeder and it hummed to life.  
Gad appeared at the entrance to the garage.  
“Did you hear that?” He called to Rutab.  
“I heard it!” Rutab barked, “Go and get the field hands back from the south sea, round everyone up and make sure we’ve got the storage sheds reenforced.” She turned to a wall beside the speeder and pulled a blaster bow from the wall, then tossed a pistol to Rey, who caught it deftly.  
Rutab steered the speeder out of the shed and Rey hopped on. She watched as Gad flung himself onto the back of a strider and took off towards the direction Rey had seen the farm hands go off in earlier.  
Rutab gunned the speeder and they took off across the sand towards the rust tinged sky above the canyon and the sieve in the Force that caused Rey’s heart to pound in her chest.

They headed straight across the dunes, kicking up a small sandstorm behind the speeder. The line of sharp mountains stretched overhead, shrouding them in darkness.  
“Where are they-” Rutab said, the lines around her mouth tense as she scoured the base of the mountains looking for any sign of Maya.  
When they came close, Rey saw a stream of black smoke rising from a spot along the rock wall.  
“That way-” She said, pointing it out. Rutab angled the speeder towards it. On closer inspection, there was an archway that had been revealed by one of the sand dunes being shifted, whether by the wind or some underground earthquake. The archway was partially collapsed, crushing a small speeder.  
Rutab let out a cry of anguish at the sight of the speeder. She kicked herself off of the skiff and sprinted towards the wreckage, pulling at the enormous red slabs. Rey only just managed to keep the skiff from colliding with the rock wall, she deactivated its engine and climbed out.  
Rutab pulled her mask and goggles from her face. Her eyes were bright red and there were tears streaming down her cheeks. “She ran off, she went and she- and the last thing I said to her-”  
Rey reached out a hand to her shoulder and Rutab collapsed against her.   
“-told her she was useless. What was I thinking? My girl, my girl-” Rey tightened her fingers around Rutab’s shoulder and shut her eyes. She let out a slow breath as she reached out with the force, past the sparking electronics of the destroyed speeder, past the piled debris, into a cavern beyond.  
“She’s not there.” Rey said, squeezing Rutab’s upper arm. The older woman lifted her chin with a sniff.  
“What?” She said.  
An echoing cry rang through the cavern beyond the cave in. It was so faint that at first Rey thought she only heard it through the Force, then Rutab’s head turned.  
“Raider bastards!” The older woman spat. She pushed away from Rey and threw herself at the rocks, chipping away at one with the staff at her side. Rey watched her and her cries felt like a knife twisting in her gut. Cast in that storm of grief, she had to focus deeply in order to let out a slow breath and focus her mind on the Force.  
Moving rocks was a trick, not the marker of a true Jedi, but occasionally useful. Rey let out a slow breath, and there was a low rumble as the stones pulled apart from each other.  
Rutab looked up as the nearest rock began to float away from her. She looked back at Rey over her shoulder in disbelief.  
“I’ll explain later.” Rey promised once the rocks had settled. They both moved forward, climbing over the destroyed speeder and deeper into an uncovered cavern that had been hidden behind the archway.  
Another raider call rang out through the cavern and they both sprinted forward, kicking up sand and rocks. They reached the edge of a dim yellow light and came out into a larger cavern with pointed rocks hanging overhead.  
“Maya?” Rutab called out, “Get back!”  
Maya was seated on the ground with her legs crossed, nursing an injured arm. Behind her was a tusken raider, arms raised with their staff held high.  
Rutab sprang forward, aiming her bow at the raider, but Maya stood up quickly, holding both hands out.  
“Grandmother?” Maya said, “Stop!” She turned to her side and reached out a hand, lightly pushing at the raider’s staff to push it down and they lowered it quickly. Maya looked back at Rutab, “Please.”  
Rutab, thoroughly confused, lowered her bow. Maya surged forward and threw her arms tightly around her shoulders.  
“How- who-” Rutab put her arms firmly around Maya.  
“Her name is Nedjem.” Maya said, wiping her reddened eyes. “Some of those lizards attacked me and she saved me.”  
Rutab looked to the raider skeptically. “This morning?” She said.  
“No.” Maya shook her head, drawing back slightly. “I met her during the last harvest.” She grimaced, “We’ve been meeting in this cave. She signs like mom does.”  
Rutab’s expression contorted as she worked out her granddaughter’s meaning, but she was interrupted before speaking by Nedjem stumbling forward. Rey helped her to stand again, but it was clear she was injured. There were a few tense seconds, then Maya stepped away from Rutab and signed to Nedjem, who signed back, shaking her head. Maya insisted, and the heavily cloaked woman finally acquiesced, letting Rey help to peel away her thick clothing, revealing a deep gash in her left side.  
“How did this happen?” Rutab said, reaching to her side to rummage through her belt for something to help the pain. “How is she injured like that when her clothing isn’t torn?”  
“She wasn’t wearing it when the cave collapsed.” Maya said quickly, her face flushed deep red.  
Rutab went stone silent and Rey kneeled down beside Nedjem and Maya.  
“Can I touch her?” Rey asked, and Maya signed to Nedjem, who looked Rey up and now, then nodded.  
Rey reached out her hand, touching Nedjem’s skin just beside the wound. She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, reaching out to the Force around them. She was immediately met with that same distracting resistance from the space around them, casting her consciousness away from the task at hand.  
She reached the boundary of something dark and smooth, and felt a shock of malevolence rip through her. Her eyes opened wide and a drop of sweat dripped down from her cheek.  
Rey let out a huff of breath, and focused her attention inward, drawing the Force out of her chest and into Nedjem.  
The scent of blood was still on the air when Rey opened her eyes, but the wound was closed. She and Maya helped Nedjem to her feet.  
“Well.” Rutab said, looking between her daughter and the raider. She sighed. “Your mother married a Correlian.”  
Maya looked down at her feet and Nedjem let out a grunt. Rey looked over her shoulder. The rock walls were jagged.  
“This place is ancient.” Rey said. There was some strange ripple in the force, a fingerprint like there had been in the ruins of the commune. She stepped away from the other three women, walking deeper into the cave.  
“We should go.” Rutab said. “This place isn’t stable.”  
Rey agreed, but didn’t say it. She wandered deeper into the cavern until she found an edge to the rocky ground that descended into darkness. The surface under her feet was sandy and as she moved towards it, the granules seemed to slide across the stone towards the shadow.  
The sieve in the Force fell out from under her, her stomach twisted into a knot, and the ground slid out from under her, falling through the floor in a mass of rubble and sand.  
Rey heard Rutab shout out her name, then there was nothing but the rush of sand roaring in her ears.  
Sand kicked up into her face, causing her to cough and sputter as she slid down a rocky ridge. The passageway twisted and turned, but she managed to keep her head up. The bottom of the ridge dropped out from under her and she landed in a heap on a large pile of coarse orange sand. Rey pushed herself up to her feet, spitting sand and rubbing a hand through her hair, scattering it to the ground.  
A single shaft of light filtered in from the ceiling of the rocky cavern.  
The sand gradually faded into dark stone that was cool under Rey’s feet. The air around her was still, filling out a wide dark chamber.  
Rey pushed the sand off of her face, coughed, and then rose up unsteadily to her feet.  
There was a shape in the center of the chamber, an enormous sphere of glass with one side exploded outwards. Pieces of black glass were scattered across the ground, from large wickedly sharp spears the length of Rey’s arm, to sprinkles of black powdered glass, like the black sand on the beaches of some forgotten shore.  
As Rey grew closer she began to see the edge of a long black slab within the sphere. Her breath caught in her throat when two bandaged feet came into view. If the rest of the cavern had been still water, this chamber was a maelstrom of the Force, drawing her closer. She stepped through the broken section of the sphere and took in the sight of the full figure.  
The figure stretched across the slab. It was wrapped in strips of thin fabric and covered in a layer of fine black dust. The shape was tall and broad shouldered, but bony and decrepit, the tight fabric strips restricting a form long ravaged by time. There was a sweet scent in the air, and as Rey drew closer she could see that the figure had been coated in some kind of resin that was settled into the folds between strips of fabric, setting and hardening it.  
She ran her fingertips along the edge of the burial slab. She was alone, and so she didn’t mask the disappointment on her face. But then, what had she expected?  
“The Force can be an echo.” She murmured, walking to the head of the slab. “The cairns outside must have been like a sieve for the pathways in the desert.”  
She let out a breath as she stepped around the head of the burial slab.  
“Stuck down here chasing nothing.” What would General Organa say? Going after a feeling when the real world was already overhead and where life was already good enough?  
Rey looked down at the wrapped head of the figure, she pressed both of her palms to the black slab on either side of its head.  
Far off, and yet as close as her own heartbeat, she heard a low crack and the chamber went pitch black. Perfect.  
She tried to reach for her lightsaber but couldn’t pull her palms away from the burial slab. The cool air that had been a refreshing contrast from the harsh desert heat became cloying, coating the back of her throat. She heard the sounds of stone grinding against stone and the surface of the burial slab began to glow with a distant dim purple light. The slab’s surface shifted, rippling into a pool of black water.  
The figure from the slab was gone, she could only see faint trails of the bandages deep beneath the surface of the slab. The damp air of the chamber pressed hard against her skin. She broke into a cold sweat, feeling her hair sticking to her temples.  
“I hear you.” She managed to croak, her eyes fixed on the purple light. Her palms rested on the surface of the water, and if she pushed down she could temporarily get them further into the liquid, but they were quickly pushed back up with the resistance of two like magnets. Voices swirled around her, indistinct at first, then they grew louder and louder, kicking up the black dust and shards of glass scattered across the floor. The words were simple - cold, dark, afraid, alone - raw pieces of emotions whirling around her and through her chest. She felt every one as though they were her own. In her mind, she knew that while it was cold and dark, she was not afraid, and though she was alone here and now in this place, her heart was bound with her friends across the galaxy. She had been alone, she wasn’t anymore, she wouldn’t be again.  
This was the truth, but not a complete truth. There was a missing piece, a stone unturned, business left unfinished.  
The form of a hand rose out of the dim purple light, then another. As they approached her hands at the surface of the slab, the form blocked the light and cast the strange hands in shadow, as if concealed by black gloves.  
Rey inhaled sharply at the sight. She felt pain in her temples from how hard she grit her teeth, pushing down into the slab again.  
“It’s alright.” She murmured, then repeated it louder, trying to drown out the rush of the Force around her, “Don’t be afraid.”  
The hands rushed up and icy cold fingers clamped around her hands. A tremendous weight yanked back at her, causing her to pitch forward on the slab. The chamber around her roared in her ears, the pained groan of an unknowable creature trapped in the world beyond worlds.  
The weight yanked down hard, but the barrier of the slab kept her from being pulled in completely. She scrambled, grunting and bracing her legs against the edge of the slab.  
“If you pull me in- I’ll be trapped like you.” She said, pulling her chin up hard to keep it from the slab. “Let me help you. Be with me.”  
What could she offer some ancient spirit roiling within the slab? She didn’t know, but she knew she hadn’t been pulled under completely, and that was enough.  
Rey twisted her hands around and caught the hands holding her by the wrists. At the same time, she reached within that storming swirl of the Force and managed to fling her lightsaber off of its place at her hip, switching it on. The pale yellow blade whirled into the air and sailed into one side of the glass sphere, slicing through it easily. The blade dragged down the glass until it landed on the ground.  
Rey heard the sound of cracks forming on the glass sphere behind her, then a sharp piercing whine as the sphere collapsed inward, sending pieces of black glass raining down on her back. She ducked her head as far as she could without mashing her face against the slab, then yanked back as hard as she could on the arms that had been trying to pull her down.  
“Come- on!” She grunted, continuing to try and haul herself back, moving by fractions of an inch. “You’re- miserable, in pain! You can’t want to continue on that way-” The whole chamber groaned and the dim purple light began to rapidly rise towards the slab. Rey managed to get her legs wedged against the sides of the slab and kept pulling back.  
Glass collapsed around her and the light shot up towards her, so sudden and so bright that it blinded her. She pulled back and free from the slab and held as tightly to the arms as she could. She landed on her back in the stone chamber and when she looked up she could see nothing in the pitch blackness. For a split second she felt a weight on her chest, crushing against her, clinging to her. It was cold and wet and miserable and trying to find something within her to hold on to. What it found was her pounding heartbeat, the sweat on her brow, the pain of a piece of glass embedded in the flesh of her forearm. A blade of cold cut through her chest and then she sat up with a start.  
Her first order of business was the warm trickle of blood down her arm. She gritted her teeth and pulled the piece of black glass from her skin, then tossed it across the floor where it skidded until it hit the wall. She pressed her palm down over the wound and breathed in deeply, then let out her breath slowly. She slowed her breathing until she began to feel a familiar pinprick in the cut on her skin. After a few seconds the wound had closed, leaving only a streak of bright red blood on her arm and a stain in her sleeve.  
The chamber groaned again and the yellow light from above began to filter in again. The light was strangely bright and the color seared Rey’s eyes. She raised a hand to cover them and looked away, and when she did she saw the yellow light landing on the figure on the slab.  
The figure that was laying in the same position on the slab as it had before, but the bandages were wet as if they’d been freshly applied, and the figure’s chest was moving- breathing!  
Rey scrambled up to her feet and went to the head of the slab again. The figure’s mouth was open and gasping against the strips of fabric across its face.  
“I’m here!” She exclaimed, and she put both hands on the figure’s head, pulling at the fabric strips. She pulled frantically until the figure’s nose and mouth were cleared. The figure sucked in a deep breath, its entire body writhing from the force of taking a breath into unused lungs.  
A piece of the fabric shifted and Rey’s blood ran cold. The figure was a pale human, and the fabric strip’s displacement revealed a long pink line down the side of its left cheek.  
It wasn’t possible, it couldn’t be possible. Rey yanked frantically at the strips. Piece of dark hair were freed from the fabric.  
Rey didn’t stop until the figure’s face was completely uncovered. He inhaled another choking breath and then his eyes opened. His eyes were bloodshot and his pupils were so large that Rey could only see the faintest border of deep brown around them. Rey put her palms to either side of his face, looking down at him upside down. His skin was clammy, freezing.  
“Ben.”  
His eyes darted around frantically, finally settling on her, unfocused for a moment and then sharp. Recognition crossed his face and he reached up a bandaged hand, extending two fingers to brush them against her cheek.  
Then he lurched to his side, spitting blood and resin onto the ground beside the slab. The force of his movement caused him to slip and Rey dropped to the ground with him, helping him to catch his breath. He rolled his head towards her, his back pressed to the slab. She put her arm around his shoulders, holding him steady. His skin was as cold as the rest of the chamber, but gradually warmed as he clung to her. Rey pulled her tunic off over her head and balled it up in her fist, wiping at his face. His free hand opened and closed slowly, unsure it would be able to move again each time.  
“Where am I?” He croaked. His body tensed under her touch. “It’s dark-“  
“It’s alright.” Rey said, reaching to her belt to take out the drinking gourd hanging from it. She opened it and raised it to his lips. “Focus on your breathing.”


End file.
